1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a spectacle frame comprising two eyewires or rims associated by at least one assembly bar. It also concerns a saddle bridge formed from two alas connected by a bridge, each of the alas presenting at least one channel in which is intended to be inserted the nasal rest zone of the corresponding eyewire.
The present invention concerns, furthermore, spectacles of the type comprising a frame formed of two eyewires associated through at least one assembly bar and a saddle bridge formed of two alas connected by a bridge, each of the alass presenting at least one channel in which is intended to be inserted the nasal rest zone of the corresponding eyewire.
The saddle bridges are U-shaped pieces made of plastic material which are housed above the assembly bars of the frame and are intended to lay upon the sides of the nose of the spectacle wearer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Saddle bridges are known which are hooked or ratched by a channel on eyewires and on an assembly bar of these eyewires through the inherent resilience of the plastic material which constitutes them. These saddle bridge frames of known type all present an unsatisfactory aesthetical appearance due to the fact that, in order to ensure the hooking to the saddle bridge on the eyewires and the assembly bar, it is necessary to foresee relatively great thicknesses of plastic material in order, on the one hand, to surround or cover the metallic outlines on which they are hooked and, on the other hand, to obtain sufficient reaction effort to secure the ratching.
Furthermore, the maintenance of the saddle bridge is not sufficiently guaranteed and it can accidently escape from the frame.
Saddle bridges are also known which are fixed by punching on lugs in the form of a point, the said lugs being repeated through welding onto eyewires in their nasal zone. This type of mounting requires special tools. Furthermore, the change of the saddle bridge is rendered difficult by the very resistent securing of the lugs in the saddle bridge material.
One of the aims of the present invention is specifically to achieve saddle bridge spectacles in which the saddle bridge can present lesser thicknesses of material and thus an improved aesthetic appearance, while giving rise to a resistent securing and being easy to reduce to practice in the spectacle eyewires without requiring any special tools. Furthermore, this securing occurs in a manner that is practically independent from the form and the position of the assembly bar(s) that connect(s) the eyewires and determine to a large extent the aesthetic appearance of the spectacles by also independently from the form of the section of the spectacle eyewires.
With this purpose, according to a first embodiment of the invention, each spectacle eyewire comprises in its nasal rest zone at least one projecting element adapted to be secured in the saddle bridge which is provided with two alas each presenting a channel intended to be inserted in the nasal rest zone of the corresponding eyewire, the projecting elements being secured in one of the lateral walls of the corresponding channel of the saddle bridge.
According to a variant of this first advantageous embodiment of the invention, the projecting element is achieved by local crushing or punching towards the outside of a portion of the metallic section of the eyewire.
According to the fist embodiment of the invention, it is necessary, in order to ensure correctly hooking the projecting elements in the lateral wall of the saddle bridge, that this projecting element have a transversal section in the form of a point adapted to penetrate the relatively soft material of the saddle bridge.
One of the aims of the second embodiment according to the present invention is specifically to prevent that it be necessary that the projecting element have a form that is too pointed and thus liable to deeply bruise or damage the material of the saddle bridge and to allow an even easier mounting of the saddle bridge upon the spectacle eyewires.
With the purpose, according to this second embodiment of the invention, the lateral wall of the channel in which is secured the projecting element presents, at least on the zone cooperating with this projecting element, a front in relief or undercut adapted to increase the hooking effect of the projecting element on the saddle bridge. The undercut front of the lateral wall thus constitutes supplementary stop means for the projecting element that no longer requires to be deeply engaged in this wall and which can even flexibly bear upon this wall in order to suppress all mounting clearance between the channel of the saddle bridge and the spectacle eyewire.
In order to reduce the application effort to be exerted in order to introduce the eyewire into the channel of the saddle bridge, the lateral wall of the channel presents the undercut face solely upon the zone that is substantially limited and centered upon the projecting element, or again on a zone centered on the projecting element and having substantially the same width as the projecting element.
According to another variant of this second embodiment of the invention, in the saddle bridge intended to be utilized in association with the spectacle frame and comprising a bridge connecting two alas each provided with at least one channel in which is adapted to be inserted the nasal rest zone of the corresponding spectacle eyewire, at least one of the lateral walls of the channel can present an undercut front adapted to increase the hooking effect of a projecting element of the eyewire.